


Storm Before The Calm

by neerdowellwolf



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Angst, M/M, NHL Trade(s), Pre-Trade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:38:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22221256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neerdowellwolf/pseuds/neerdowellwolf
Summary: They've both been in the league long enough to know that when Taylor leaves he won't get to say goodbye. So, when Nico kisses him Taylor understands what it means.
Relationships: Taylor Hall/Nico Hischier
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	Storm Before The Calm

**Author's Note:**

> I really really love [Get Me Out Of My Mind (Get You Out Of Those Clothes)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18562663) by Sister_Grimm and it made me want to try writing something less than 1,000 words. It wasn't my original intention to write Taylor/Nico, but then Rey Shero said they were in listening mode and I got in my feelings.

Taylor has been around long enough to know how these things work. Still it catches him by surprise when his phone starts pinging with alerts before he’s even managed to finish his breakfast. 

Ray had said they were going to tell the media. He'd given him time to warn the people close to him, but Taylor hadn't. He was well practiced at not using the time he'd been given.

-

Nico was in Switzerland when he won the Hart, but Taylor still walked off the stage to eleven texts, mostly exclamation points.

_I knew you could do it._

Taylor had felt like he could do anything.

-

They aren't together, hadn't been since at least the spring, but Taylor still knows who it is when he hears a knock at his door.

"So," Nico says as he walks through the door. He sits on the grey accent chair by the wall, not in the middle of the couch, where the cushion still has an imprint in the shape of him. "You were never going to stay."

Over the last two and half years Taylor slowly learned all of Nico’s facial expressions, until he felt like an expert. The way his eyebrows knit together during games, the way smiles split open his face, how his face relaxed when he was about to come. Taylor knew each one intimately. 

"I don't know," Taylor says honestly. Nico still won’t look at him. 

Eventually Taylor had learned the way Nico's eye lashes fanned across his cheeks as he tried not to cry.

-

When Nico first smiled at him Taylor thought he would do anything to get it to happen again. He would have done whatever it took to make him happy and for a while it worked. He carried the team to the playoffs on his back and every ache, every pain, had been worth it to feel the way Nico glowed with each victory.

He'd known the moment he felt his knee give out he'd flown too close to the sun. He wasn't the savior of a franchise and he wasn't someone who deserved the way Nico looked at him. Disappointing him had felt like a relief.

-

"Did you ask for a trade?" Nico's voice is quiet.

"No," Taylor says. Quickly. Maybe too quickly given the way Nico narrows his eyes. 

"Did you have your agent ask?"

Taylor doesn’t say anything, but it's enough. 

After everything they've been through, he didn't think he still had the ability to break Nico's heart.

-

Taylor probably never should have let Nico into his hotel room that night, but he'd never pretended to be a good guy. Good guys shut down their rookies when they looked at them like that, but Taylor hadn't wanted to. He'd known he shouldn't, but he'd let Nico in, let him kiss him, shyly at first and then more confidently. Taylor had let it all happen knowing he probably wouldn't be the one to regret it.

-

Nico's been in the league long enough to know when Taylor leaves he won't get to say goodbye. So when Nico kisses him, Taylor understands what it means.

He knows what Nico is asking for when he pulls him silently into bed, tries his best to give it to him. He wants to make up for everything, but he can’t, so he just kisses Nico back, strips when he does, goes where directed.

-

Taylor had been injured before. He thought he knew what to expect, but listening to the doctors change his timeline again and again felt like drowning.

When it had been Nico, he'd pressed iced packs and soft lingering kisses to his wrist after every game, but Taylor hadn't known how to accept anything that soft. Eventually Nico stopped trying.

-

"It might not happen," Taylor says, brushing his hand down Nico's spine. He doesn't shiver or arch into it.

"It doesn't matter," Nico says. It does, to Taylor, but he supposes maybe that's why it doesn't, not anymore.


End file.
